


seasons change but poeple don't

by olivemartini



Category: Red Queen - Victoria Aveyard
Genre: Angst, F/F, I don't know their ship name or I'd tag it, Pre red queen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-16 23:29:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15448245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olivemartini/pseuds/olivemartini
Summary: There's a part of her that wants to ask her to stay.  To not run to him, towards the future, to this boy that will take Evangeline away from her for good.  But she doesn't, because their parents will drag them to the palace and the queenstrials anyway, no matter what methods they have to use to get them there.But she could do something else.She could lose.  That, at least, is within her power.





	seasons change but poeple don't

"What do you mean, you aren't coming?"  Evangeline stops midsentence, spinning in her seat so quickly the girl braiding her hair does not have time to move before she is pushed to the side, knocked off balance.  They both watch her stumble without making a move to help her.  "Of course you're coming."

"Why would I?"   _Because I am,_ is the answer that is waiting on Evangeline's tongue, and they both know it.  Elane has always gone where Evangeline is simply because that is the easiest course of action, but this -watching her go and put on a show just so she can become someone else's wife, even with everything between them, even though they knew this day was coming- was not easy.  It was torture.  "Its not like I'm going to win."

"Of course not."  The words come out before Evangeline has a chance to hear how they sound, and for a moment, they both flinch, floundering in the round of awkwardness that the idea makes grow between them.  It's worse because its the truth.  The queenstrial may be tradition, but it's also only a formality.  No one can stand when Evangeline wants them to fall.  "But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try."

"So I can snag some other worthy suitor, you mean?"  Elane wants to run.  She wants to melt back into the wall and disappear, go where no one can follow her.  They had promised each other forever, but it seems that even forever has a time limit.  "You could stay."

"I really couldn't."

She couldn't.  It was a stupid suggestion.  But-

"You could lose."  Elane had not asked it of her before.  Had not even thought it, really, not unless it was one of those rare moments where the silence grew too loud and she was forced to listen to what she could not face during the day, where she looked at the empty space beside her and knew that she would do anything, if only Evangeline could fill those empty places forever.  But now, when there were only hours before their departure, when they were facing one last night with each other, Elane was asking for what she knew would be impossible for her to give.

Evangeline had not answered.  The red girl beside her had frozen in place, terrified, and rightly so.  They were a vicious people, the Samos family.  A strong people.  They do not allow for chinks in the armor, and this, the truth that Elane had just spilled out in front of a girl that could spread it to anyone, was a very large target that had just appeared.  Sometime soon, she would disappear, and Elane would never ask where she had went or why another girl had taken her place, turning a blind eye to this as she had so many other things.  It was her mistake, after all.  Evangeline was only protecting them, something she swore to do at any cost.

Anything, it seemed, except for what Elane was asking her now.  

"I can't."  The words were ripped out of her throat, falling between them, raw and bloody and half formed, like she could no quite believe that she had to say them.

"But you can."  Elane fell to her knees in front of her, reached out to her arms even when Evangeline tried to pull away and held on tight, trying to pour every ounce of her pain and fear and love into these next few minutes, because once they leave the safety ( _the surety_ ) of these four walls, she will not get another chance.  "One mistake.  One misstep.  One moment to repaint your destiny."

( _They talk a lot of destiny, these people.  Elane is sick of it.  The universe does not care to paint the stars with their names, no matter how great they think they are. That's a place reserved for actual heroes, and none of them, not even Evangeline, is able to claim that their legacy will be anything but bloody.  They'd paint the world red before they would accept defeat.  Maybe silver, if that's what it took._ )

"And a life time paying for it."  

"Is that what I am?"  The words sting, even though Elane knew that she did not mean it that way, knew that the only reason she was spinning them in this manner was to have further leverage.  Evangeline was always so closed off, even with her.  Just this once, she wanted to pry her open.  "A punishment?"

"You're the best thing that's ever happened to me."  Raw again.  Split at the core, bleeding all over the room.  They will tear themselves apart to do their duty, never mind who they hurt.  "But that doesn't mean I can walk away from what I am."

"From what he's making you."

"From what I want."

It's the final word in a much avoided discussion.  The nail in the coffin.  The only thing that would make Elane stand up, letting her face fall as she flickers in and out of sight, too wounded to keep hidden for long.   She would, in the end, do whatever Evangeline wants.

( _Her mother said that there is love that fills you up and love that drains you.  Elane had spent a long time figuring out which one this was, and it seems that she has finally found it, as much as she wants to be wrong.  Her only hope is that Evangeline feels just as hollow._ )

"And you want me with you?"  She spits the words out.  "Stand by your side as you win the crown?"

"I want you to stand beside me.  Always."  Evangeline stands to meet her, her touch tender, but even that amount scraps against Elane's skin, making her want to draw away.  But she doesn't.  This is the moment they have been moving towards since the moment they were born.  There was even a time where it was what she thought she wanted.  "Just like we planned."

 _Plans can change, Evangeline,_ is what she wants to say.  But she doesn't.  She only smiles, because the red girl is watching, and she must keep up appearances.

At one time or another, its all you have left.

 

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on Instagram @olive.writes.fanfic


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